Norfolk Christian Colin Gillett experienced intense debilitating pain for years due to Crohn’s disease. Here he tells his story of healing and why he is thankful to God for each day.
Colin was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 1990 and experienced many years of tests, medicine and bouts of severe pain. He has had surgery several times, the most recent operation was February 2013 and doctors confirmed a period of remission would be unlikely. Colin experienced intense debilitating pain.
Colin said, “My ability to absorb nutrients and proteins has been severely curtailed by the illness and the operations; so I have a constant battle against extreme fatigue.”
On 8th September 2013 Coline attended a healing service at his local church in Spixworth led by Ash Kotecha. Colin said, “I went, worn down by the knowledge that the pain wasn’t going to leave me, but get worse.”
As a committed Christian, Colin knew that the power of prayer had helped him though the dark post surgery days earlier in the year. Colin describes what happened when he went forward for prayer at the service.
“I stood at the front of the church, with a few others. At no time was I touched by any other person The longer I stood there focussing on spoken words of Scripture I’d heard many time before, I became hotter and hotter internally. It was close to unbearable, and the pain was still there, still as intense. At the end of the evening, the heat had gone, but the pain hadn’t.”
A few weeks later Colin was aware that the pain was much less, and the sharp stabbing attacks were not lasting as long.
On 20th September he went to a healing service at Sprowston Methodist church – led by Rev Nigel Fox – to give testimony about the reduced level of pain he was feeling. After he had spoken, church members gathered around him to pray. Colin said, “During the prayer-time I thought, Not again! This heat, this almost unbearable heat! Again, at the end of the service that heat had all but left me, but the abdominal discomfort hadn’t.”
Four days later Colin was walking along and he suddenly realised he felt no pain or discomfort at all.“I hadn’t been free from this for over 25 years, and then only for a short period. I leant against a lamppost on that sunny October day, said ‘thank you’ and wept.”
Colin is rejoicing that he is currently living pain free. He said, “There is only One who knows how long this will continue. All I know for sure is that I’ve been given something that nothing on this planet can ever take away – a period free from all pain. Every morning I say ‘thank you’ for that heat of the Spirit, as I get out of bed without having to grit my teeth.”
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